US Vice President JD Vance has rather annoyed the UK after an interview with Fox News
Brits have been left making a startling realisation after JD Vance faced huge criticism for comments he made about Ukraine receiving help from a ‘random country that hasn’t fought a war in decades’.
Vance, the vice president of the United States of America, has caused headlines in recent days following a fierce confrontation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House.
The duo, alongside President Donald Trump, came to blows in the Oval Office after Vice President Vance accused President Zelenskyy of being ‘disrespectful’.
“You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance said, while also accusing the Ukrainian president of ‘propaganda tours’ and not saying ‘thank you’ to Trump and the United States.
Well, he followed up on these words in an interview with Fox News on Monday (March 3) in which he said the US is the only country that can safeguard Ukraine from Russian aggression.
In making this stance, he said the security provided by the USA is ‘way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years’. As it stands, only France and the UK have publicly committed to troops on the ground in the form of a peacekeeping force.
As you can imagine, the UK didn’t take too kindly to these words and insinuations from Vance.
And some have even made the realisation that Vance had seemingly united the British political spectrum across all major parties, with Labour and Conservative politicians backing the UK’s record. Even Reform leader Nigel Farage was on the same page as his political rivals.
“Vance is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,” Farage said.
“For 20 years in Afghanistan, pro rata our size against America’s, we spent the same amount of money, we put the same number of men and women in. We suffered the same losses.
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“We stood through those 20 years putting in exactly the same contribution. And all right, they may be six times bigger, but we did our bit.”
Over on the Tory benches, James Cartlidge, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, said: “Britain and France came to their aid, deploying thousands of personnel to Afghanistan, including my own brother and numerous parliamentary colleagues, past and present. It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice.”
Johnny Mercer, a former MP and British Army officer who served as Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs, took to X to label Vance a ‘clown who needs to check his privilege’.
Sir Keir Starmer, prime minister of the UK, took a more middle ground tone but still backed the UK’s record when it came to the armed forces. A spokesperson for the PM said: “The prime minister, and I think this whole country, is full of admiration for all British troops who have served, for instance, in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom have lost their lives in the process, and have fought alongside allies, including the United States.”
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, took a slightly more withdrawn approach to Vance’s words. She said: “I know JD Vance quite well. I’ve looked at the comments, I don’t think he actually said that.
“A lot of people are getting carried away. They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated let’s keep cool heads. America is our closest ally. I believe President Trump and JD Vance want peace, they’re looking after their national interest, we need to do so as well.”
Vance took to X (formerly Twitter) to clarify what he said by saying it was ‘absurdly dishonest’ to say he meant the UK or France, adding: “I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond.
“But let’s be direct: there are many countries who are volunteering (privately or publicly) support who have neither the battlefield experience nor the military equipment to do anything meaningful.”
“Vance is getting hammered in the UK from all sides,” one X user wrote.
A second said: “JD Vance’s statement has angered so many Brits.”
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